Didáctica

Continuous Professional Development for Foreign Language Teachers: The Role of Reflection and Self-Reflection: A Cuban and a Mexican case study

Vilma Páez Pérez *
Universidad de Holguín, Cuba
Mariane Gazaille **
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canadá
David Guadalupe Toledo Sarracino ***
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, México

Resumen El presente artículo presenta un estudio de caso en Contexto Cuba-México donde se crean oportunidades y recursos para que estudiantes reflexionen sobre su propia práctica pre-profesional en enseñanza de lenguas. En los resultados de este trabajo se reflexiona sobre un proceso de acción-auto-reflexión-reflexión crítica para que puedan aprender desde su propia experiencia, motivarlos a buscar oportunidades para involucrarse en actividades de desarrollo pre-profesional. La clave del desarrollo del profesor en el que el auto-cuestionamiento y el pensamiento crítico puedan transformar al docente. Las acciones son guiadas por el impulso, la intuición o la rutina hasta un nivel en el que sus acciones los conduzcan a la reflexión y el pensamiento crítico. Los estudiantes y profesores son conscientes de sus fortalezas y debilidades a través de un proceso del Marco de Desarrollo Professional Continuo promovido por el Consejo Británico (Conciencia, Comprensión, Involucramiento e Integración).

Summary The following article presents a case study in a Cuban-Mexican university context. In the case of a teacher trainer, it is our task to help future teachers to seek for opportunities to engage in pre-professional development activities from an early stage in their pre-professional training, to guide them through an action- self-reflection - critical reflection process so that trainees can be aware of their strengths and weaknesses and seek for opportunities to enroll in CPD practices. Reflection may be viewed as the input and the output for this professional development where self-inquiry and critical thinking can "help future teachers to move from a level where they may be guided largely by impulse, intuition, or routine, to a level where their actions are guided in a conscious way by reflection and critical thinking". In this paper, the way the stages (Awareness, Understanding, Engagement and Integration) of the Framework for Continuing Professional Development promoted by The British Council, which is in charge of promoting continuous professional development in our pre-service training courses in both institutions.

Palabras clave Enseñar, auto-reflexión, reflexión, desarrollo profesional

Keywords Teaching, self-reflection, reflection and professional development

---

 

1. INTRODUCTION

Universidad de Holguín (Cuba) and Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (Mexico) have been working on the improvement of English language teaching for over four decades without obtaining the expected results. In light of the demands of the 21st century, at present efforts are directed to ensure that newly graduated professionals become independent users of the language, so there is an urgent need to count with well prepared and skilful teachers, hence our efforts to improve the pre-service teaching practice. To fulfill this aim, self-reflection and reflection practices have been of tremendous help.

Teacher’s role has changed and learner´s needs and preferences are highlighted in order to meet the demands of the skills required in the new millennium regarding language use. Students need to become more autonomous learners in the process of becoming independent users of English. Hence, teachers are required to get involve in continuous professional development activities.

Language teachers constantly seek for a better professional practice and for even better outcomes on the part of the students. In teacher training courses, it is important to create opportunities and means for the teachers-to-be (student-teachers) to reflect on their own teaching practice and on the results obtained by their students in their practical teaching experience.

Making the student-teachers aware of their strengths and weaknesses by a continuous reflection process has proven its effectiveness when seeking for pre-professional development. For the past five years a pilot study has been conducted at the university of Holguin with the aim of helping our student-teachers to understand their likelihood for success and get motivated towards the profession by creating opportunities and means for the students to reflect on their own teaching practice; to learn as much as possible from their practical teaching experience and seek for pre-professional development.

This may allow them to move from a level where they may be guided largely by impulse, intuition, or routine, to a level where their actions are guided by reflection and critical thinking.

2. DEVELOPMENT

Being a foreign language teacher demands effort, commitment, engagement and love for the profession. Teachers need training to play the decisive role in the learning process. To be a good teacher requires a combination of professional knowledge and specialized skills as well as your own personal experiences and qualities. Learning about new ideas and techniques in English language teaching can be motivating and encouraging.

Pre-service teacher training that integrates academic subject studies with pedagogical studies and teaching practice constitutes one of the most successful models of foreign language teacher education. To be a more effective teacher, there is a need to engage in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities even from the pre-service stage in teacher preparation. CPD has to be seen as a systematic process in which the ultimate goal is to ensure the training of better language teachers whose newly acquired knowledge is reflected in the outcomes of their students.

Corona (2013) states that CDP has to include and integrate:

• Teacher’s language proficiency: Teachers need activities to enhance and update their knowledge of, among other things, grammar, vocabulary building, pronunciation, etcetera, so that they strengthen their confidence and ability to teach and evaluate their students.
• Pedagogic knowledge: Methodology, classroom management, assessment among other strategies and procedures to enhance teaching and learning, to make practical use of new findings and knowledge, and to make optimal use of available resources, among other aspects.
• Professional knowledge: The role of teachers in society. Language teachers must see themselves as educators of citizens. In the 21st century English language teachers have also to be multicultural mediators, so as to help students expand their cultural horizons and feelings of respect "to the other", sentiments of solidarity and peace.

"A fundamental concept in pre-professional training is reframing; teachers are more likely to learn when reflecting on and testing personal theories" (Toledo, Montano & Páez, 2016: 61) mention that a reflective model for language teachers for such research attempts to connect received knowledge, such as facts, data, and theories, with experiential knowledge—what we know from our practical, professional experience—by a continuous process of reflection. "This reflective cycle may occur before, during, or after an event in a process of recollection as we struggle with a problem" (Wallace, 1991:27).

Preparing effective teachers is the ultimate goal of teacher training courses. It is the time to set the basis for enhancing their language knowledge and skills, their methodological knowledge so that they can manage the classroom and assess their students and to e aware of their role as educators.

To fulfill this objective, reflection and self-reflection have been used as an useful tool to help student-teachers to take advantage of every step of their pre-service teaching practice to learn as much as possible for the practical teaching experience.

What is reflection?

Reflection is a process, both individual and collaborative, than involves experience and uncertainty. Normally, it comprises identifying questions and key elements of a matter that has emerged as significant in our teaching practice, then taking one’s thoughts into dialogue with oneself and with others.

One evaluates insights gained from that process with reference to: (1) additional perspectives, (2) one’s own values, experiences, and beliefs, and (3) the larger context within which the questions are raised. Through reflection, one reaches newfound clarity, on which one bases changes in action or disposition. New questions naturally arise, and the process spirals onward, completing the action-reflection-critical enquiry cycle once and over again. 

Reflection guides teachers to self-dialogue and inquiry that lead the decision-making process within teaching-learning contexts. In this respect, Schön contended that "reflectivity is a dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more skilful" (as cited in Giovannelli, 2003:293). The author further identified "reflection in action," which entails self-critique when understanding a phenomenon and how we re-describe it through experimentation and "reflection on action" that implies rebuilding and examining actions and events. In light of this, teachers’ reflection should start with the EFL classroom assessment, focused on self-assessment of their pedagogical practices, language teaching and materials and their effect on students’ learning outcomes, which might enable them to reconstruct and improve a particular teaching and/or learning situation.

According to Eröz-Tuğa (2013), reflection should be a common practice for teacher trainers and trainees who possess some certain notions, principles, and beliefs about teaching a foreign language.

Farrell (1998) presents a wide range of definitions about reflection and self-reflection, which he has taken from different authors: Pennington (1992) defines reflective teaching as deliberating on experience, and that of mirroring experience; Richards (1990) sees reflection as a key component of teacher development. He says that self-inquiry and critical thinking can help teachers move from a level where they may be guided largely by impulse, intuition, or routine, to a level where their actions are guided by reflection and critical thinking. In an interview with Farrell (1998), Richards says that critical reflection is a response to a past experience and involves conscious recall and examination of the experience as a basis for evaluation and decision-making and as a source for planning and action.

Smyth draws attention to the potential usefulness of discussion based on rational reflection. While we may acknowledge that reflection can be a powerful tool in enhancing understanding of teachers´ actions within professional practice, it is difficult sometimes on an individual level to know where to begin and how to proceed in critical enquiry. It is a common practice for a teacher to think about their performance in the classroom, whether in the form of general musings on the way home from school or for the purpose of seeking to influence their future actions Schön (1987) but focusing reflections, criticality and challenging oneself in order to effect change requires a disciplined approach and conscious attention to the process itself. Let’s take a look at some activities and techniques that we have used in our teacher training courses.

3. The experience

Experiential reflection

A fundamental concept in pre-professional training is reframing; teachers are more likely to learn when reflecting on and testing personal theories and beliefs combined experiential knowledge by a continuous process of reflection.

Student teaching is considered to be the most significant component of teacher preparation programs, so to guide future teachers, in our case, students majoring in English to become translators, interpreters, and FL teachers, even before they begin their pre-service teaching practice, they are asked to reflect on the way they were taught the foreign languages (English and French) they are majoring in. In this initial experiential reflection they are asked to remember how they reacted as foreign language learners. Usually their answer to this reflective exercise brings happy memories and they speak nicely about their experiences and about their professors. There are times when they openly express that they dislike the way they were taught a given component or ability, like writing. Their main complaint is that they got bored in the writing class. In both cases, we grab the opportunity and ask them to give reasons why they liked or disliked the language their actual teaching in the pre-service courses they took. The opinions they give are written down and then used to analyze teaching practice. 

Observation of an experienced teacher: After several of these flash-back sessions, the students are given the task of visiting a language lesson, if possible to approach the same professor who taught them previously. The idea is not to judge the professor, or the lesson. They are asked to take notice and analyze what actually happens in the language classroom; to ‘observe with new eyes’ how the language class works. It is amazing to listen to the students’ opinions about the class observed, and to the way they are now aware of the FL teaching-learning process.

The pre-service teaching practice is organized together with the third Pedagogy course in Cuba and with the Language Policy course in Mexico. Each of the students is in charge of teaching a full course and he/she has a tutor who takes care of his/her teaching.

The tutors assist the trainees in planning the lessons and in assessing the students but providing enough flexibility so that the student-teachers become more responsive to their students’ needs without disregarding the course objectives. In this situation mapping all the possibilities that might happen in the language classroom becomes impossible, but the options are there and the trainees have proved that they are more than capable of managing their class.

Pre-service teaching practices help future teachers to understand better their profession. Their mentors usually set plans to support them and to provide useful and beneficial feedback about their teaching and suggest ways to improve it.

In our teacher training courses, we want student-teachers to see and feel the beauty of opening doors to their future students. The beautifulness of teaching lies in the satisfaction of fostering interest and opening minds so that student-teachers can guide themselves in the road of learning by doing.

We, as teachers and tutors may impart knowledge and help our students to learn and do good things, but unless a fire is lit deep in the student-teachers’ gut, the learning process is nothing but rote and meaningless repetition.

4. Individual reflection

Review of critical incidents

Ur (1996), states that the first and most important basis for professional progress is simply the teacher’s own reflection on daily classroom events. This reflection may be quite spontaneous and informal, but tutors and supervisors may device ways to make it more purposeful and guided.

A good way to encourage self-reflection is to have student-teachers analyze those critical events that occur in their classroom. Normally, they can describe events that have significantly affected them, consider the context of the event, and then think about why it had such a significant effect. Some of the ideas below are given to them to guide their self-reflection.

Describe an incident that happened in your classroom that worries or provokes anxiety while you are teaching.

• What worries me about my teaching is….
• What I find interesting, annoying, inspiring, frustrating, encouraging in my classroom is…
• What I consider a dilemma in my class is…  (Páez, 2008:2)

Then, they have to present their ideas and reasons on the given situations presented by each of them to their peers in a discussion workshop. Some of the situations provided by each of the members of the group may have things in common, so cooperation emerges and learning from each other happens in a natural way,

5. Observation

Guided self-observation is important to have future teachers in Mexican and Cuban contexts in order to analyze their teaching and the results obtained by their students. A self-observation form is given to each of the student-teachers and they are asked to be ready to pay attention to the different aspects that appear in the form while they are actually teaching. Then, after the lesson, in a critical self-reflection process they should fill in the form and give reasons for their answers.

Later, in a group discussion activity each of them states the areas they need to improve and the ones they feel they are doing fine. (Annex 1)

The group discussion conducted after the self-observation exercise will help the student-teachers to reflect even more in their actual teaching. We, mentors, always encourage them to be honest and follow their feelings, because they are gaining valuable professional skills in many areas from presentation skills, collaborating with others and time planning, just to name a few of them.

The key to self-reflection also has to do with how confident the student-teachers are. Hence, when they are engaging quite naturally in the group discussion, some hints are written on the board so that they incorporate them to the natural process of reflection. We ask them to think of:

• the objectives of the program they are teaching
• how they learned the foreign language
• how their students are learning
• their students’ learning preferences
• teaching and learning methods
• assessing learners’ outcomes
• the roles and responsibilities of a teacher
• challenges and opportunities

The student-teachers not only reflect but also assess their performance as teachers; explore perceptions and understanding of the teaching-learning process and its impact on teachingphilosophy and practices; and increase their knowledge on ways to reflect, evaluate and use action-research to develop their own teaching practice and to share their good practices with others.

5.1 Observation, Group Reflection and Peer-teaching

One of the activities most frequently used by mentors and other teachers in charge of pre-service teaching students is to observe their lessons. Supervision can be very useful since it provides positive feedback to the teaching-learning process if there is an amicable exchange between the tutor-supervisor and the student-teacher before the actual supervision takes place. It certainly guides the student-teacher’s attention to the analysis, interpretation and modification of his teaching.  Given that the presence of an observer might alter my students’ behavior, previous to the actual observation activity, the tutor and the student-teacher discuss how and when the observation will be carried out. They analyze lesson objectives, topic, the characteristics of the course and the students, among other aspects to be taken into consideration during the observation activity. Students-teachers normally react in a positive way and cooperate with the tutor highlighting those concerns that they have about the lesson, the course, the students, and their own performance as teachers. This is an initial reflection that is followed by a thorough analysis of the outcomes of the lesson observed in an amicable and productive atmosphere.

As a means of promoting group reflection among pre-service teachers to help them become conscious, rational and analytical about their own strengths and weaknesses in teaching aided by their peers, observation among peers is promoted.

How is this done? An observation form is given to each of the student-teachers and they are asked to be ready to pay attention to the aspects listed in the forms they have. Since each of the forms is directed towards different aspects of the class the resulting discussion is a good example of group reflection in which each of the participants has something to say and learn from each other. Student -teachers become supervisors themselves, and they can be quite critical. They are able to reflect on their own teaching and to judge other student -teachers’ lessons. 

6. Applying action research-reflection to continuous teacher development

Continuous Professional Development comprises four major stages of development: awareness, understanding, engagement and integration.

One of the characteristics of the way in which the pre-service teaching practice is organized in our pre-service teacher courses is to introduce future teachers into professional development activities. The goal of this pre-professional development plan is to facilitate awareness of their own practice through reflection. These action-reflection cycles will also help them to understand better the teaching-learning process as well as classroom managements and learning outcomes. The more they understand their actions, the more engage they become in their teaching practice and in a better position they are to ensure quality in their classrooms, planning good lessons, understanding learners, managing the lesson, knowing the subject matter, managing available resources, assessing learning, integrating ICT, taking responsibility, including inclusive practices, using multilingual approaches, promoting 21st-century skills, and understanding educational policies and practice. (Annex 2)

As teacher trainers and teacher educators, we need to ask reflexively to ourselves what has this tutoring of pre-service teaching practice is contributing to my own development? Dick (2013) advocates the importance of teacher learning by a continuous process of reflecting on the practical actions we take. 

She finds her practice strengthened by her reflection on it. Here is what she acknowledges:

I find myself ashamed to admit that during this exercise I have been guilty of exactly what irritates me about some trainees on pre-service teacher training courses. That is, trainees who, when introduced to a new activity or technique, can use it (because it has been modelled to them) but have no idea what it is actually doing or where it is appropriate to use it. (Dick, 2013: 143).

Hence, Dick (2013) recognizes the importance of doing what one preaches. In fact, tutoring and participating in our student-teachers preparation, reflecting on their practice as well as in ours, definitely help us to improve our preparation as teacher trainers and influence positively in our Continuing Professional Development. At the same time, student-teacher become aware of the possibilities they have to choose their path for their own future professional development.

Conclusion

Reflective teaching can benefit future FL teachers in many ways: it helps student-teachers to avoid acting from impulse and routine behavior and allows them to act in a deliberate, intentional well-thought manner that will help them to gain confidence in their capability of conducting and assessing the teaching-learning process.

By reflecting honestly and critically on our own experiences, one can determine what is needed for pre-professional and professional development once graduated.

Reflection and self-reflection allow student-teachers to be able to explain their judgments and actions in their classrooms with reasoned arguments and incorporate good practices in building relations with their relations with students, and to work to develop positive values as citizens in themselves and in their students.

Through a reflection process our student-teachers have become part and parcel not only of the teaching activity but also of the evaluation of the process; by getting acquainted with those aspects of the teaching-learning process that have become red light spots for both the teacher and the students; to reflect more on teaching; to become more interactive and reflective as teachers.

References

Corona, D. (2013). Changing our mind set in English language teaching and learning in Cuban universities. Keynote lecture presented at VI Conferencia Científica Internacional. University of Holguín, Cuba. ISBN 978-959-16-2138-2 http://www.uho.edu.cu/conferencia

Dick, L. (2013). Top Tips: A model for participant-led, shared learning. In Innovations in pre-service education and training for English language teachers in Julian Edge and Steve Mann. United Kingdom, London: British Council.

Eröz-Tuğa. (2013). Reflective feedback sessions using video recordings. ELT Journal, 67 (2). http://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccs081

Farrell, T. (1998, December). Reflective teaching: The principles and practices. Forum. Retrieved from: http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/usia/E-USIA/forum/vols/vol36/no4/p10.htm

Giovanelli, M. (2003). Relationship between reflective disposition toward teaching and effective teaching. The Journal of Educational Research, 96(5), 293-309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220670309597642.

Joelle, K. J. and Johnson, J.K. (2002). Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education. USA: University of Washington.

Páez, P. V. (2008). Enhancing pre-service teaching practice by means of Teacher Supervision. Proceedings: VII International Conference on Foreign Languages, Communication & Culture, WEFLA 2008. ISBN 979-959-16-1205-2 www.wefla.org  

Páez, P. V. and Escalante, S. (2016, September). The Role of Self-Reflection for the Permanent Formation and Development of Foreign Language Teachers. Revista Cognosis. Retrieved from: http://revistas.utm.edu.ec/index.php/cognosis  

Pennington, M. (1992). Reflecting on Teaching and Learning: a developmental focus for the second language classroom. In J. Flowerdew & M. Brock & S. Hsia (Eds.), Perspectives on Second Language Teacher education. Hong Kong: City Polytechnic.

Richards, J. (1990).Towards Reflective Teaching. 
Retrieved from: http://www.tttjournal.co.uk

Richards, J. and Farrell, T. (2005). Professional development for language teachers: Strategies for teacher learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Ashgate Book.

Toledo, D., Montano, S. y Páez, V. (2016). Competencias docentes del profesor de lenguas extranjeras en Toledo, D., Montano, S. y Márquez, L.G. (Coords.) (2016). Panoramas de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en México. Ciudad de México: Editorial Fénix.

Ur, P. (1996). A course in language teaching practice and theory. Cambridge Teacher and Development. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Wallace, M.J. (1991). Training foreign language teachers: A reflective approach. Cambridge. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

---

* Vilma Páez Pérez: Vilma Páez Pérez is a full time professor and researcher in the area of teacher training and development. Teacher trainer for BC in Cuba. She has taught several courses in many Cuban universities and abroad. She has received many awards for Teaching Excellency from University of Holguín and from the Cuban Teachers National Association. She organizes an International Scientific Conference on Foreign Languages, Communication and Culture (WEFLA).

** Mariane Gazaille: Mariane Gazaille is a professor and researcher at the Modern Languages Programs at the department of Languages and Translation Studies at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. She is currently the dean of the Language Department at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in Canada.

*** David Guadalupe Toledo Sarracino: David Guadalupe Toledo Sarracino is a full time professor and researcher at Facultad de Idiomas at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California in Tijuana México. He is a holder of a Ph.D. in Linguistics granted by Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro. He is a former Fulbright scholar at UCSD. He is part of the board of National Accreditation System at COAPEHUM, A.C. in México.